Case 2400194/2024 · Employment Tribunal
Mr J Murphy v Secretary of State for Work & Pensions — 2025
- Case reference
- 2400194/2024
- Decision date
- 4 November 2025
- Jurisdiction
- England & Wales
- Judge
- Employment Judge Shotter
Parties
2 namedClaimant
Mr J Murphy
Respondent
Key findings
Tribunal's reasoningJudge Shotter, sitting alone in a public preliminary hearing, ruled on the respondent's strike-out application against the claimant's claims of constructive unfair dismissal, sex discrimination, sexual harassment and discrimination on the grounds of protected belief. A substantial number of allegations were struck out under Rule 38(1)(a) as scandalous or vexatious and having no reasonable prospect of success, including all sex discrimination claims and large blocks of harassment and protected belief allegations.
The remaining claims, including some harassment and protected belief allegations, the constructive unfair dismissal claim, and an application to amend to add new allegations, were not struck out but made subject to deposit orders on the basis they have little reasonable prospect of success. The judge took into account the claimant's means in setting deposit amounts.
A private preliminary hearing on case management was listed for 13 March 2026. PDF text was truncated and individual deposit amounts per allegation were not fully visible in the extracted text.
Claims and outcomes
6 findings recordedThis case has mixed outcomes under at least one legal claim type. A tribunal can uphold some allegations and dismiss others under the same legal head, so rows below may represent separate issues or allegation groups from the judgment.
| Claim type | Issue or finding | Outcome | Protected characteristic | Award |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harassment | Sexual harassment and discrimination on grounds of protected belief allegations dated 12 May 2022 (incidents 1-18) struck out under Rule 38(1)(a) as scandalous or vexatious and having no reasonable prospect of success. | Struck out | Religion or belief | — |
| Harassment | Sexual harassment and protected belief discrimination allegations dated 24 March 2023 (incidents 19-24) and 26 May 2023 (incidents 27, 28, 30, 31) not struck out; deposit orders made because claims have little reasonable prospect of success. | Other | Religion or belief | — |
| Harassment | Sexual harassment and protected belief discrimination allegations dated 26 May 2023 (incidents 19, 32-36), 7 July 2023 (37-39) and 8 August 2023 (40-42) struck out under Rule 38(1)(a) as scandalous or vexatious and having no reasonable prospect of success. | Struck out | Religion or belief | — |
| Sex discrimination | Direct sex discrimination claims under section 13 Equality Act 2010 struck out under Rule 38(1)(a) as scandalous or vexatious and having no reasonable prospect of success. | Struck out | Sex | — |
| Religion or belief discrimination | Direct discrimination on grounds of protected belief not struck out; deposit order made as claim has little reasonable prospect of success. |
Legal tests applied
4 references- Rule 38(1)(a) Employment Tribunal Rules of Procedure
- section 13 Equality Act 2010
- section 26 Equality Act 2010
- section 27 Equality Act 2010
Official outcome judgment PDF
Gov.uk primary recordThe official judgment PDF on gov.uk contains the tribunal's outcome, reasoning, and any remedy details. Where this page does not yet show extracted outcomes for every claim, use the PDF as the authoritative source.
Published on gov.uk under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
How we got this data
Case essentials (reference, date, judge, venue, country, claim categories) are extracted from the structured metadata gov.uk publishes alongside each decision. Parties and monetary figures are extracted from the judgment PDF text. Key findings and per-claim outcomes require a second extraction pass that is not yet complete for this case — until then, the primary source linked above is the authoritative record. See full methodology.
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